Gleason kicks off anti-drug campaign in Kernville

A powerful message was established Saturday afternoon at Kernville’s Riverside Park: Community awareness about methamphetamine, the need to recognize a problem and a hope of recovery from addiction.

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Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

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Posted Jul. 9, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Updated Jul 9, 2013 at 9:51 AM

Posted Jul. 9, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Updated Jul 9, 2013 at 9:51 AM

KERNVILLE — A powerful message was established Saturday afternoon at Kernville’s Riverside Park: Community awareness about methamphetamine, the need to recognize a problem and a hope of recovery from addiction.

A former addict, a law enforcement agent and a county supervisor detailed how the community could raise awareness and take ownership of Kern County’s meth problem at an event with more than 200 people in attendance.

“This is your program and we hope all of you who registered (for more information) are galvanized, get together and start talking to raise the level of awareness to the public,” Gleason said. “We hope you take ownership of this problem, because we (the government) are not going to do it. You are.”

Community approach needed

Kicking the methamphetamine problem to the curb requires community effort, not reliance on government. That was the message coming from the Drug Enforcement Agency's chief agent operating in Kern County.

DEA Agent Carl Beckett, from the Bakersfield office, said his job entailed a lot of investigation, and the meth problem in Kern County had the potential to impact a lot of his friends and neighbors.

“For me, what I do is very personal, because what I do will hopefully affect the quality of life for every single person sitting here (in the audience), and those who are absent and could not be here,” Beckett said.

Beckett said the one thing not seen in most newspapers was the rampant nature of meth in the county.

Beckett said his office's average bust for meth was between 40 and 50 pounds, while its largest in Kern County was 440 pounds, something he called the second-largest in the U.S.

“Meth is one of the most dangerous substances ever created,” Beckett said. “When I mention to friends elsewhere in the United States that Kern is where I work, the first thing that they say is that we are the meth capital of the United States.”

Beckett called that a disturbing notion when he heard that.

“That is not what I see in Kern County,” Beckett said. “I see people, families, friends and neighbors, not the meth capital of the United States.”

Beckett said it was those elements that made it incumbent upon the community to take back what was theirs.

“The community as a whole is not selling meth, and if you are willing to take back what is rightfully yours, you have to be willing to step forward and call it in,” Beckett said.

Beckett added that he saw neighbors caring for neighbors as one of the trademark distinctions for curtailing the epidemic.

Page 2 of 3 - “Something that is lost in many places still lives on here today in Kern County, ” Beckett said. “It's about what you can do as a resident to inform people. At the end of the day it starts with you.”

Author Nic Sheff, a recovering meth addict, detailed his own path from drug abuse to recovery. He said he started using pot at the age of 11, started using crystal meth at age 17, and from there began a cycle of rehabilitation and relapse.

Sheff said that throughout the process, he wished he had been made more aware of the problem in his youth.

“I think starting young is the most important thing in prevention,” Sheff said. “I think programs in high schools are crucial, and so are discussions about how evil this drug is.”

He added it was more important to handle an addiction as a family rather than placing responsibility solely on the individual.

“I think families working together can make all the difference,” Sheff said.

A three-pronged attack

Gleason, the county supervisor, echoed Beckett in that it was incumbent on the community to make the impact it wanted to curtail meth use.

“The metric for success after today is what are the follow-on activities,” Gleason said. “How are you going to handle your methamphetamine problem? Street signs, labels on liquor outlets, educational programs at your schools, those are all important.”

Gleason said the county and Kern Stop Meth Now's plan was threefold: Prevention, intervention and suppression.

“We are working hard to explore and to discover the best, most effective ways to work the prevention angle, because we want to work hard to prevent addiction in the first place,” Gleason said.

For those who are already using, abusing, about to abuse or had just finished abusing, Gleason said it was about helping.

“It takes up to two years to kick this habit,” Gleason said. “There is hope, there is a better life, and we want to help you find that better life.”

The county supervisor added the third prong of the attack – suppression – was aimed at the supply side of the meth problem.

“We need to kick the butts of these suppliers,” Gleason said. “We need to destroy the suppliers' ability to bring these toxic materials into the community.”

Gleason, Beckett and Sheff all recommended the Kern Stop Meth Now's website, www.kernstopmethnow.com, as a great community resource for curbing meth presence in the community.

Following the event, Gleason said Kern Stop Meth Now was at the very beginning of the program.

Page 3 of 3 - “We put the word out to the people of who we are, what we are about, and now it is time for the follow-through, getting the right people engaged and continuous beating of the drum until they take ownership of the problem,” he said.

He said the goal was to get the entire community involved.

“Hopefully, when we look back at this, we can say we started in the right place,” he said. “We're not interested in home runs, we're interested in singles. Let's get to first base, stop and evaluate where we are before going to second base.”